SALT LAKE CITY — Looking ahead to Saturday’s matchup (2 p.m. Vivint Arena) between Utah and Weber State at the start of the season, the Wildcats would likely have been the favored team.
The Wildcats were picked to finish high, as usual, in the Big Sky Conference, where they have been one of the dominant teams for 13 years under coach Randy Rahe, while the Utes were picked to finish ninth in the Pac-12 with a team ranked as one of the youngest in all of college basketball.
Yet at this point, you’d have to say the Utes are the favored team, based on their 7-2 record to date that includes wins over BYU, Minnesota and Nevada, the latter on the road. The Utes are ranked No. 81 in the Sagarin rankings and 111th in the KenPom rankings.
Meanwhile, Weber is off to one of its worst starts in years, at 3-5, with its only wins coming against non-NCAA schools West Coast Baptist and Westcliff University and over Utah Valley by three points. The Wildcats are ranked No. 264 in Sagarin and No. 271 in KenPom.
The Wildcats started the season with an astounding 89-34 loss at Utah State when their best player — guard Jerrick Harding — didn’t play, dropped a 71-56 home decision to San Diego and also lost three games in the Gulf Coast Showcase.
Harding and Cody John were the two leading scorers for last year’s team and the two guards are leading the way again this year, at 20.1 ppg and 10.9 ppg, respectively. However, the rest of the team has been inconsistent, as Rahe has tried seven other players in the starting lineup.
Kham Davis, a 6-foot-4 JC transfer, has started seven games and averages 8.4 ppg and 4.4 rpg, Dima Zdor (4.4 ppg, 3.5 rpg), a 6-foot-10 center from Ukraine, has also started seven games, while forward Michal Kozak (5.5 ppg, 3.3 rpg) of the Czech Republic, has started four games. Redshirt freshman Tim Fuller, who is the top reserve, averages 6.4 ppg.
“I’m impressed with how hard they play,” said Utah coach Larry Krystkowiak. “Harding is an unbelievable talent, jet-quick and returning Big Sky Player of the Year — he’s a stud. It’s a scrappy bunch and I know they’ll be fired up and ready to go and we will be too.”
The Utes have been led by sophomore forward Timmy Allen, who has been the leading scorer in all nine games (20.8 ppg on the season) and last week was named Pac-12 Player of the Week.
The other expected starters are sophomores Both Gach (12.1 ppg) and Riley Battin (10.6 ppg), and freshmen Rylan Jones (11.7 ppg) and Branden Carlson (7.3 ppg), the latter two who have been battling injuries. Carlson missed the game against Cal Davis with a knee injury and Jones left the Central Arkansas game after nine minutes with a rib injury.
“We’re still not sure,” Krystkowiak said of his lineup for Saturday. ”We’ve got some tough kids and I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re all ready to go.”
This will be the final season of the Beehive Classic, which began in 2017. Each of the four in-state schools have played each other once, but lack of attendance and interest will keep it from continuing in the future.
After Saturday’s game, the Utes will play a pair of neutral-site games next week against Kentucky in Las Vegas Wednesday and San Diego State in Los Angeles Saturday.
Weber State will play another non-Division I school, Bethesda, Tuesday before playing BYU in Provo on Saturday.